Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Book 5) by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Book 5)
Book Review: The Vampires, the Fallen and the Shroud
Summary: 5 Stars
Death Masks (2003) is the fifth urban fantasy novel in the Dresden Files series, following Summer Knight. In the previous volume, Elaine helped Harry reach the Table. The spell on Lily Unraveled. Meryl took out Talos and Toot-Toot had his pixies gang up on Aurora.
Dresden woke up in his own bed in a very clean apartment. The new Lady Summer had provided him with a Brownie cleaning crew and the new Summer Knight had fixed the Blue Beetle. Elaine kissed him on the cheek when she left.
In this novel, Harry is on the set of the Larry Fowler show, trying hard to suppress his magic. He had been trying to talk to Mortimer Lindquist and the psychic had insisted on meeting here. In a few minutes, they are going to be interviewed by Larry. Later two more mystery guests will join them.
Larry and the audience enjoy laughing at the guests's babble of seances and magic. During the break, Harry asks Mort about Susan and learns that she is definitely alive and has been in Peru. After the break, Larry introduces the other two guests. One of them is Duke Ortega of the Red Court vampires. Harry's control slips and his magical field takes down one of the TV cameras with a flash and smoke.
While the stage crew rolls off the defunct camera, Ortega tells Dresden that he has come to talk to him. Then the host conducts a little more discussion of the superstitious belief in magic. A second camera blows out and Ortega continues his conversation with Harry. He has come to face Harry in single combat. The suppression spell finally breaks down and the whole studio goes dark. Harry agrees to the challenge and then the emergency lights come on, but the fire alarms start whooping.
Outside the studio, the other mystery guest -- Father Vincent from the Vatican -- also wants to talk with Harry about a job. Father Forthill of Saint Mary of the Angels has referred him to Harry. As they walk toward the Blue Beetle, some gunman starts shooting at them with a silenced pistol.
Harry digs his shotgun out of the trunk and the gunman retreats, but still fires hid pistol in their direction. When that weapon runs out of shells, Harry hustles the priest into his car and putts out of the parking garage. On the way out, Harry notices several armed man and recognizes one as an enforcer for Johnny Marcone.
Father Vincent directs Harry to a motel near the airport and explains the case. The Shroud of Turin has been stolen and is probably in Chicago. Father Vincent wants Harry to find it.
In this story, Susan returns to Chicago with Martin, a coworker in the organization that Susan has joined. She has changed and is now strong enough to fight off a Red Court vampire. But she still has the Hunger and lusts after Harry. Of course, a really good wizard should be able to work around these difficulties.
Murphy calls and asks Harry to come to the Cook County Morgue. Murph introduces him to Waldo Butters and then they view a corpse without head or hands. The man had been found under a freeway overpass. Despite the horrible mutilations, he had apparently died of the Plague and other diseases. Harry examines the corpse more closely and finds a tattoo on the inside of the biceps.
As Harry is leaving the hospital, he encounters a bear-like thing and runs back toward down the alley. The thing chases him, but an old man steps out into its path and swings a katana at the beast. Then a young Russian joins the fray with a saber. Finally, a large man with a broadsword drops in and cuts off Ursiel's head.
Harry has been rescued by the Knights of the Cross, including his friend Michael Carpenter. The other two Knights -- Shiro Yoshimo and Sanya -- have come to Chicago to protect Harry from the Denarians, an order of Fallen Angels bound to thirty pieces of silver. The Denarians want Harry's soul and the Knights want him to drop the case to save himself.
This story takes Harry from the harbor to the downtown Marriott to Undertown to Wrigley Field to the O'Hare chapel. Then he gets to take a train ride. He finds himself fighting with vampires and the Fallen. Although the scenery is great, the creatures are really bad.
Highly recommended for Butcher fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of Fallen Angels, preternatural creatures, and a really stubborn wizard.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Book Review: Reunion of the Damned
Summary: 5 Stars
Death Masks finds Harry Dresden once again up to his eyeballs in trouble. First, the high-ranking Red Court vampire Ortega reappears in Harry's life. Ortega was present when Harry started the war between the White Council of wizards and the vampires. He's returned to Chicago to force Harry into a duel, which if Harry dies will end the war, supposedly. Should Harry refuse, then all his friends and cohorts will be killed by hired guns on the vampires' behalf. As always, Harry's in a no-win situation.
Add onto this the new case he took on from a high-ranking rep from the Vatican to recover the stolen Shroud of Turin and things just keep getting better. That his long-lost love Susan returns to say goodbye and help out cannot possibly make things worse, right? Enter Michael, the Knight of the Cross from earlier in the series, along with his two fellow Knights, putting their own lives on the line to save Harry, the Shroud, and stop the Really Bad Demons (TM) who want the Shroud for their own evil designs.
Mix in Butcher's hardy doses of plot twists, betrayals, action, sex, gunplay, bloodletting, swordfighting, and magic-tossing, and you get one hell of a fun ride. At more than 350 pages, this one goes by faster than a kid's book. I sure was left wanting more and have already started in on the next in the series.
Along with more character development for all the recurring characters, we see resolution of the storylines in this one as well. We get returning villains as well as allies for our hero, with their own stories advancing as the series progresses. Harry never wins without some sacrifice, and a lot is lost in this book. While he comes out in the end (hardly a spoiler, I think, since he's the narrator, come on!), it's certainly not with a "happily ever after".
As with the prior four books in this series, we get characters that seem real, from all their misjudgments, mistakes, bad jokes, and other interactions with one another, to badly-laid plans, to well-laid plans that never get the chance to go off, we see the same frustration that we experience in life, when the unexpected crops up and shatters any preconceptions of controlling one's own fate. That Harry takes on not just his own safety and future, but also that of so many innocents at the risk of his own life, shows us a hero of the old cloth, giving everything of himself to serve good. Please pick up these books, you'll be very happy you did.
Book Review: He's more than a long leather coat
Summary: 5 Stars
The fifth in the Dresden Files pits our hero Harry Dresden, Chicago's only working Wizard - well, the only one in the Yellow Pages at any rate - against the demands of the other world, the underworld and those of his day job as a Private Investigator. The opening chapter sets up nicely the simultaneous conflicting pressures that Harry's supernatural friends and enemies place on him. And by the second chapter, there has been an attempt on his life and he's been given notice that the Red Court is threatening not only his own life, but that of those he cares about. Top that off with his human friends and their demands, and a bad day gets that much worse.All in a days work for Harry, but that's all the better for those of us following his adventures. Here the central mystery is a couple of gruesome deaths and the theft of the Shroud (that covered Christ?s body until he was resurrected). As events move forward it becomes clear that both are linked. As usual there is much more to the book than just mystery - fantasy, adventure and an element of romance as Susan turns up in Chicago again also take precedence from time to time. This serves to heighten or slow the pace as required to drive the plot forward. There are no new threats here: it is essentially the Red Court as we have met in the previous 2 books of the series - and the mob has it?s influence too. However the danger Harry faces is very real, unrelenting as the story is told over just a few days, and from all sides. This makes for a fast paced, action packed style that any who have read the series will recognise and appreciate.
While the majority of the players are those known already to Dresden file followers, Butcher has not fallen into the trap of making his story inaccessible to potential new readers. Past events influencing the story are briefly described, but in enough detail that the book need not be read as part of the series, although as a Dresden junkie I do think that because events are so skilfully handled in the ups and downs of being Harry, the books would be best read in order.
I did find the ending of Death Masks left me feeling a bit down - the roller coaster ride of not only the dangers Harry faced but the various emotional storms carried me along and left me a little wrung out. Also, although the danger has receded for a time, like the tide it is inevitable it will resurge again - there is more to follow and the threat is still out there. Cool.
Book Review: What do you mean I have to wait for the next one?
Summary: 5 Stars
I consider myself quite lucky, in retrospect, that there were already five books available in this series by the time I started reading. I cannot remember the last time I devoured a series as quickly or with as much enjoyment as this one. Butcher has really done an exceptional job in creating this world and these characters. He started off with one of the best first novels I've read and has only gotten better with each installment. I have literally laughed, cried, and cheered while reading these books, and that is something that is not entirely common with me (though I'll admit to being a sap and something of an easy target for the tearjerk effect).One reader commented that this installment left many things unresolved, and this is true to a point. Actually, the majority of the major plot points were dealt with quite nicely (far more neatly, in fact, than any writer so new to the craft has any right being able to accomplish). There were a number of threads left dangling, but only insomuch as was necessary in order to bring these elements into play in later episodes. Also, the reviewer who noted that there was a statement about the Jews being responsible for Jesus' death was not entirely accurate. There is a referrence to Barrabus who was freed by the Jews despite the fact that Pilate had wanted them to free Jesus. If Butcher deserves to have all but one star stripped from a rating for accurately reporting an event that was already written of in a much more widely published book (I don't have to explain that one, do I?), then we have a problem here. This was in no way intended as anti-semitic, and I thought it was actually rather neatly in keeping with the rest of the storyline. By the way, just for the record I am not Jewish but I am not Christian either. Frankly I think both sides of this particular debate ("The Jews killed Jesus!", "No they didn't!") are rather silly. But that's just me...
Anyway, as for this book I was more than pleased. Somehow Butcher keeps making each one better than the last, and I'm keen to see if he can keep up the trend. Only problem is that I've run out of books and now have to wait for him to publish the next one. Either I'll have to slow down my reading speed, or else Jim has to start typing a hell of a lot faster. In the meanwhile, get Peter Jackson on the phone. I've got an idea for his next big movie series... :)
Book Review: Shroud Thinking
Summary: 5 Stars
Shroud RemarksI only recently noticed that I had missed the release of the latest in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series, and quickly moved to correct my error. Dresden is a wizard after my own heart - trying to make a living in modern Chicago, and a bit too honest to do anything but scrape by. Armed with a wand, a few special charms, and a flower covered ancient Volkswagen Beetle, Harry is always ready to take on a task completely beyond his capabilities.
This time he has his choice of menaces. Having triggered a war between the Wizard's Council and the vampire's Red Court in the last volume, Harry continues to be in desperate straights. Duke Ortega of the Red Court has proposed a way to end the war - a duel between him and Harry. Needless to say, Ortega has no intention of losing, and Harry will need more that a few incantations to survive.
More of a surprise, though, is the appearance of Father Vincent, a papal agent with an assignment for Harry. The Shroud of Turin has vanished - stolen and brought to the USA and, while they have more than an inkling of who the thief was, it will take Harry to track it down. The bad news is that the Shroud attracts all kind of attention, from everyone from mafia bosses to fallen angels. And they all want Harry's skin. The good news is that Harry will get paid for the work, and the rent is due. Or he will die in the attempt and won't need to pay rent ever again.
There is more. Harry's ex-girlfriend and recovering vampire snack Susan is back in town, the police are looking for a murderer who collects parts, and the Knights of the Cross are there to lend a hand. Total madness wherever you look, and Harry is in the middle of it, bad attitude and all.
Butcher has created a series that is a refreshing change from the usual pseudo-medieval magick tale. Harry is up to date, listens to good music, and, when he can afford it, even dresses fairly well. Or he would if people would stop stealing his clothes. He alternates between wisecracks, a love for money, and a set of ethics that keep getting in his way. And you can't help but like a guy whose closest friend lives in a skull.
Even though there is continuity between the five books in the series, each still can stand on its own. It you like fantasy but are tired of the usual enchanted princess genre try a dip in the Dresden files. You won't be disappointed.